Porter has another drill in which he'll make the fielders hold a football in their throwing hand while catching a ball barehanded, "which makes them focus on reading the ball all the way into their glove," Porter said.

Donovan, who soon discovered his ragtag group was a long way from being fit for trench warfare, had his men run three miles each morning, then strip to the waist and fight one another barehanded to make them mean.